ASP.NET Data Presentation Controls Essentials

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ASP.NET Data Presentation Controls Essentials

Developers just getting their feet wet with ASP.NET mayfind daunting its abundance of Web controls. Where is the logical startingpoint for such a learning endeavor? I d suggest a book such as ASP.NET Data Presentation ControlsEssentials, authored by fellow ASP.NET MVP Joydip Kanjilal.It s a great way for C# developers to get introduced to the most powerful anduseful Web controls ASP.NET offers.

This book doesn t attempt to cover every menial control ofASP.NET after all, who really needs a book to figure out the Label control? Instead,the meatier controls are the focus of this text and like the title says, they reall about presenting data to users. The book starts with the ASP.NET 1.0 Repeatercontrol, traverses through the data control wonderland of ASP.NET 2.0, and endsits journey with the two new data controls of ASP.NET 3.5.

The first chapter breaks the ice by covering data bindingbasics, including the use and evolution of data binding expressions. It alsodetails the declarative and programmatic interfaces for the ASP.NET 2.0 datasource controls, including (but not limited to) the Object Data Source and theSQL Data Source controls. Paging, sorting, and filtering techniques are also disseminated.

The second chapter thoroughly covers the basic listcontrols of ASP.NET, such as the ListBox, DropDownList,and CheckBoxList controls. It explains how to bind them, handle key events,manage their list items, and use them in simple applications. A comparison ofdesign time declarations vs. dynamic control instantiation is also presented. Oneof this chapter s most valuable assets is a demonstration showing how to extendthe CheckBoxList control with custom behaviors via object-oriented techniques,like inheritance.

The most feature-rich ASP.NET data controls like theRepeater, GridView, and DataList each have entire chapters dedicated to theexploration of their intricacies. Editing, sorting, filtering, styling, andevent handling tend to be major topics of discussion for each. Chapter 6 evenshows how to programmatically export the contents of a GridView control toMicrosoft Excel or Word.

Chapter 7 explores the ASP.NET view controls: DetailsView,FormView, and Treeview, while the final chapter delves in to LINQ and the twonew data controls of ASP.NET 3.5: ListView and DataPager. Drill-down forms andhierarchical data display techniques will be a breeze after you ve made it thisfar.

At roughly 250 pages, this is a bite-size book that fitsnicely within the busy schedule of modern-day programmers. Its conciseexplanations are a refreshing change from the encyclopedia-sized programmingreferences of yesteryear. It includes plenty of screenshots to help VisualStudio users navigate the maze of wizards and dialog boxes to reach theirdesired outcomes. This is an excellent book for developers new to ASP.NET, andmay also be a useful reference for more experienced developers who ve foundthemselves with too little time to learn these functionally rich controls in asmuch detail as they would have preferred.

Steve C. Orr

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Title: ASP.NET Data Presentation ControlsEssentials

Author: JoydipKanjilal

Publisher:Packt Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-847193-95-7

Web Site: http://www.packtpub.com

Price: US$39.99

Page Count: 241